In Nationwide Day of Protest, Local Communities Oppose Sale of Tribune Co. Newspapers to the Koch Brothers

For Immediate Release

In Nationwide Day of Protest, Local Communities Oppose Sale of Tribune Co. Newspapers to the Koch Brothers

WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, May 29, as part of a national day of action, Free Press, local activists and members of the Coalition to Save Our News will join together to protest the potential sale of Tribune Co. newspapers to the Koch brothers.

Other members of the coalition include Common Cause, Courage Campaign Institute, CREDO Action, DailyKos, Greenpeace, Forecast the Facts, SEIU and Working Families.

Protests will take place in Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Harrisburg, Penn.; Hartford, Conn.; Houston; Los Angeles; St. Louis; New York; and Washington, D.C. People will gather outside the offices of Tribune-owned newspapers, Tribune-owned television stations and Tribune investors to support local news and demand hard-hitting journalism, not political extremism, from the press.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron, who will be speaking at the event outside the Baltimore Sun, made the following statement:

"Allowing the Koch Brothers — with their notorious history of bankrolling climate-change denial, voter suppression and the right-wing noise machine — to control the major daily newspaper in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and five other towns is the worst outcome imaginable for the already depleted and recently bankrupt Tribune Co. But there's much more at stake here than the political aims of a pair of billionaires or the narrow interests of a few investors. The civic health of these communities is in danger.

"All of these places — from Allentown to Orlando, Hartford to Hampton Roads — may be very different, but they have at least one thing in common: They need more news about their communities being dug up by more local reporters. The best hope for more local journalism and journalists is a local media owner with deep ties to that community. Having already done so much damage to these newsrooms, Tribune Co. should back away from the Koch Brothers and put these vital outlets in better hands."

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Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. Learn more at www.freepress.net

Further

Whew. That was way too close for comfort. And yeah, the country's in a sorry state to have come to this. But not only does Doug Jones become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama in 25 years; his win is a blunt rejection of all the hate-mongering, gay-bashing, race-baiting, sexual-assaulting, serial lying crap of losers Moore and Trump and Bannon and their ugly ilk. Forward to mid-terms. And once and for all, to Moore in all his evil: "Fuck you and the horse you (badly) rode in on."